The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), says one Ejikeme Mmesoma, an Anambra pupil celebrated for emerging top Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) scorer manually inflated her result.
To this end, the examination said it will withdraw her original result and also prosecute her.
The Board in a statement issued Sunday said, it was constrained to set the records straight and state unequivocally that many of the results which many of these candidates are parading are fake
It stated: “The attention of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has been drawn to several publications in both print and online media celebrating certain candidates for being high scorers in the 2023 UTME.
“Ejikeme used her manually inflated score to attract a N3 million scholarship from Innoson Motors and was set to be honnoured by the Anambra State government before she was exposed.”
The Board noted that in many instances, some of these candidates had actually obtained far lower scores than they are claiming and had used some funny software packages to manipulate their results to deceive unsuspecting members of the public.
It added: “The most pathetic of them all is the case of Miss Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma, who claimed to have scored 362 in the 2023 UTME and was awarded a N3m scholarship by Chief (Dr.) Innocent Chukwuma.
“She was even set to be honoured by the Anambra State Government when one of its top officials put a call through to JAMB to confirm her claim, only for the Board to reveal that Miss Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma had actually scored 249 and not the 362 she claimed.
“She had manipulated her UTME result to deceive the public to fraudulently obtain scholarships and other recognitions.”
The board added that it has also identified the case of another fraudulent candidate who claimed to have scored a 380 aggregate score in the last UTME.
It said: “A similar case was that of one Atung Gerald in Kaduna, who claimed to have scored 380. His ethnic group had taken the issue up, requesting that he be given special recognition, only for the Board to disappoint them with the incontestable fact that Atung never obtained the 2023 UTME application documents, not to talk of sitting the examination.”
The Board advised the public to always cross check these claims by candidates with the Board before rushing to honour them with undeserving awards, adding that certain software had been created to fake their version of their results and put same out in the public space for fun.
The examination body noted that it will withdraw Ejikeme’s result, punish and also prosecute her.
It stated: “It is to be noted that Miss Mmesoma had sent a message to the Board’s platform to request her UTME result, after which she manually inflated her scores and pasted same on the 2022 UTME result sheet. Unknown to her, the Board had changed the design of the 2023 UTME result sheet. Her original result remains 249, as nothing can change that. With this her ignoble act, Miss Mmesoma would be prosecuted and her original result withdrawn.
‘This is not all, as the Board would, in due course, investigate all candidates laying claims to higher scores than they actually obtained. Once discovered, such candidates’ original results would be withdrawn forthwith, and they would be handed over to relevant security agencies for prosecution.”